Mexico dealt Costa Rica a damaging home defeat while Honduras and the US won on Saturday to shake up the standings in 2010 World Cup qualifying in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
Mexico more than met the challenge of taking on Costa Rica on the artificial pitch at notoriously hostile Saprissa Stadium, winning 3-0 with goals from Giovanni Dos Santos, Guillermo Franco and Andres Guardado.
It was Mexico’s first away win in the six-nation final round of qualifying, while Costa Rica lost for the first time at home and fell from first place to fourth.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Dos Santos’ long-range, left-footed blast put Mexico ahead in the 45th minute. He also played a key role in Mexico’s other two goals, bringing the ball into the area and passing to Franco, who fired home in the 61st minute, and delivering the ball to Guardado for a shot from short range in the 70th.
The victory gave Mexico 12 points, the same as Costa Rica but ahead on goal difference. They trail Honduras and the US, both on 13 points.
In San Pedro Sula, Honduras pummelled Trinidad and Tobago 4-1, while the US rallied to beat El Salvador 2-1 in Salt Lake City.
Carlos Pavon in the 19th and 27th minutes, Amado Guevara in the 61st and David Sauzo in the 82nd scored for Honduras, while Kerry Baptiste scored in the 85th for Trinidad and Tobago.
Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore scored first-half goals to lift the US to victory after Christian Castillo had given El Salvador a 1-0 lead in the 32nd minute.
But Dempsey equalized in the 41st when he headed in a free kick from Landon Donovan.
Donovan’s cross in first-half injury time also supplied Altidore, while Howard’s save of William Reyes’ point-blank shot in the 87th preserved the victory.
“The best part was the response when we went down,” US coach Bob Bradley said. “It’s never easy. You feel that pressure for a moment, but there was a real strong response from everybody on the field. That says a lot about what these guys are all about.”
Saturday’s defeats left Trinidad and Tobago and El Salvador with their hopes of qualifying all but extinguished.
For the first time in almost 36 years, a Parisian derby will be played in French soccer’s top flight when reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain FC take on the nouveau riche Paris Football Club (PFC) today. Not one of the players involved in today’s match — PFC’s 38-year-old third-choice goalkeeper Remy Riou is almost certainly not going to be involved — was born the last time there was a Parisian derby in Ligue 1. That was on Feb. 25, 1990, when Moroccan midfielder Aziz Bouderbala scored a brace as Racing Paris 1 beat PSG 2-1 at the Parc des Princes home that
BOUNCING BACK: Antetokounmpo had just returned from an eight-game injury absence last month, leading the Milwaukee Bucks to their third win in four games Giannis Antetokounmpo threw down the game-winning dunk with 4.7 seconds remaining to lift the Milwaukee Bucks to a 122-121 victory over the Charlotte Hornets and grab a slice of NBA history on Friday. The Bucks trailed by as many as 16 on their home floor, but Antetokounmpo scored 12 of his 30 points in the final quarter to help seal the win in a frantic finish that saw five lead changes in the final 45.7 seconds. The two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) added 10 rebounds and five assists. It was his 158th regular-season game with at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and
Stan Wawrinka’s 40-year-old legs did not let him down over three-plus hours in his first singles match of a farewell tour yesterday. Three-time Grand Slam singles champion Wawrinka beat Arthur Rinderknech of France, who is ranked 29th to Wawrinka’s 157th, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5). The match went 3 hours, 16 minutes. Wawrinka last month announced that this year would be his last on the ATP tour. “Today was a tough battle ... it’s amazing to come here for the first time, to have so much support,” Wawrinka said yesterday. “Twenty years on tour, you kind of always play in the same place
Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka yesterday got her season off to a winning start for Japan in the United Cup, after the UK’s Emma Raducanu pulled out of their singles clash with a fitness issue, while in Brisbane, Taiwan’s Latisha Chan and Wu Fang-hsien crashed out of the women’s doubles. In Perth, despite Osaka’s win, the UK took the match 2-1 with a deciding mixed doubles victory. Osaka was too strong for reserve and 276th-ranked Katie Swan, winning 7-6 (7/4), 6-1 as Raducanu watched from the sidelines. “I’m proud of how I fought,” Osaka said. “I’d never played here, it was tough.” Britain
RSS